Cyber, Are you still Bullying

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Cyber, Are you still Bullying?

• Jenn Kiddle, Grayslake Middle School,
  Kiddle.jennifer_at_d46.org
• Tim Timmons, Park Campus School,
  timmons.tim_at_d46.org
• www.d46.org

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• Overview
• Web 1.0 v 2.0
• Safe Kids Savvy Teens
• Cyber bully quiz
• Cyber bully v Cyber threats
• Examples/Implications
• Tools, and Categories
• Cyber bully Types
• Prevalence
• Online, Unsafe, Addictive
• Risk Takers, Risk Factors
• Relation to Bullying
• Social Status Impact
• School involvement

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Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0 Tools

• Search browse
• Talking with a friend on cell phone
• Netscape
• Content produced by few
• About companies
• Connecting computers
• Download culture
• Control
• Centralized
• Britannica Online
• Just technology

• Publish subscribe
• Cell phone has multiple uses
• Google
• Content produced by many
• About communities
• Connecting people
• Remix culture
• Contribution
• Decentralized
• Wikipedia
• An attitude, not just a technology

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Safe kids Savvy Teens

• When children are young, they should use the
  Internet in safe places and we must teach them
  simple safety rules.
• But as they become teens, we must provide them
  with the knowledge, skills, and values to
  independently make good choices online.
• And, remain hands-on to ensure they do.

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Cyber bullying - Agree or Disagree

• Cyber bullying is most often a continuation of
  in-school bullying.
• Students most often involved in cyber bullying
  appear to be the in-crowd students.
• Wannabes appear to be the most frequent
  targets.
• Its safe to assume that the student posting the
  harmful online material is the originator of the
  problem.

• False - Can be a continuation, but often, is
  retaliation for in-school bullying, and can lead
  to threats or distressing material.
• True - Most active interaction is done online.
  Not the typical bullies.
• True - Wannabes get targeted by the savvy
  in-crowd who frequent online spaces.
• False - DO NOT assume and find out if the online
  material was a retaliation for face-to-face
  bullying.

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Cyber bullying - Agree or Disagree

• Cyber threats could be related to online
  role-playing gaming.
• Material posted online is often more of a real
  threat, than verbal threats.
• There are reports of cyber bullying leading to
  suicide, school violence, school failure, and
  school avoidance.
• The harm caused by cyber bullying may be far
  greater than traditional bullying.

• True - Frequently involve small groups developing
  plans for a violent attack within a game.
• False - Face-to-face threats allow body language,
  posture to assess the threat, that online threats
  dont allow.
• True - Missouri story - http//www.foxnews.com/sto
  ry/0,2933,315684,00.html
• True - Online communications can be extremely
  vicious.

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Cyber bullying

• Being cruel to others by sending or posting
  harmful material or participating in other forms
  of harassment and/or social cruelty using
  technology.
• Also known as Electronic Bullying Online
  Social Cruelty
• Cyber threats
• Cyber threats are either direct threats or
  distressing material that raises concerns or
  provides clues that the person is emotionally
  upset and may be considering harming someone,
  harming him or herself, or committing suicide.

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Bullying 2.0Examples Implications
Cyber

• Sending cruel, vicious, or threatening messages.
• Creating web sites with stories, pictures,and
  jokes that ridicule others based on hatred or
  bias.
• Breaking into an e-mail account and sending
  vicious or embarrassing material to others.
• Taking a picture in the locker room with a phone
  camera and sending it out.
• (Examples from Nancy Willard's website cyber
  bully.org)

• No escape (24/7)
• Wider dissemination of hurtful material.
• Anonymity
• Less likely to report to a parent. Lack of
  closure.

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Cyber bullying tools

• E-mail
• Cell phones
• Pager text messages
• Instant messaging
• Personal web sites
• Online personal polling web sites
• Chat rooms

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Cyber bully Categories

• Inadvertent
• Role-play
• Responding
• May not realize its cyber bullying
• Vengeful Angel
• Righting wrongs
• Protecting themselves
• Mean Girls
• Bored Entertainment
• Ego based promote own social status
• Often do in a group
• Intimidate on and off line
• Need others to bully if isolated, stop

• Power-Hungry
• Want reaction
• Controlling with fear
• Revenge of the Nerds
• (Subset of Power-Hungry)
• Often Victims of school-yard bullies
• Throw cyber-weight around
• Not school-yard bullies like Power-Hungry Mean
  Girls

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Cyber bullying Types

• Flaming Online fights using electronic
  messages with angry and vulgar language
• Harassment Repeatedly sending offensive, rude,
  and insulting messages
• Cyber stalking Repeatedly sending messages
  that include threats of harm or are highly
  intimidating. Engaging in other on-line
  activities that make a person afraid for his or
  her own safety
• Denigration Dissing someone online. Sending
  or posting cruel gossip or rumors about a person
  to damage his or her reputation or friendships
• Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D., Director of the
  Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use

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Cyber bullying Types

• Impersonation Pretending to be someone else
  and sending or posting material online that makes
  that person look bad, gets that person in trouble
  or danger, or damages that persons reputation or
  friendships
• Outing and Trickery Sharing someones secret
  or embarrassing information online. Tricking
  someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing
  information which is then shared online
• Exclusion Intentionally excluding someone from
  an on-line group, like a buddy list
• Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D., Director of the
  Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use

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Prevalence

• In the 2003-04 school year, i-SAFE America
  surveyed students from across the country on a
  new topic Cyber Bullying
• It is a topic that not many adults were talking
  about but one that is all too familiar with
  students.
• 42 of kids have been bullied while online. 1 in
  4 have had it happen more than once.
• 35 of kids have been threatened online. Nearly 1
  in 5 have had it happen more than once.
• 21 of kids have received mean or threatening
  e-mail or other messages.
• 58 of kids admit someone has said mean or
  hurtful things to them online. More than 4 out of
  10 say it has happened more than once.
• 53 of kids admit having said something mean or
  hurtful to another person online. More than 1 in
  3 have done it more than once.
• 58 have not told their parents or an adult about
  something mean or hurtful that happened to them
  online.
• Based on 2004 i-SAFE survey of 1,500 students
  grades 4-8 http//www.isafe.org

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Prevalence

• Cyber bullying typically starts at about 9 years
  of age and usually ends after 14 years of age
  after 14, it becomes cyber or sexual harassment
  due to nature of acts and age of actors
• Affects 65-85 of kids in the core group directly
  or indirectly through close friends

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Online, Unsafe Communities

• Depressed teens becoming involved in
  its-my-choice self-harm communities.
• Find acceptance from like-minded peers.
• Leads to the spread of unhealthy attitudes and
  behavior.
• Angry teens becoming involved in hate groups or
  gangs with adult members and recruiters.
• Forming their own troublesome youth groups.
• Find acceptance from like-minded peers or adults.
• Leads to contagion of unhealthy attitudes and
  behavior.

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Unsafe, Addictive

• Many teens appear to have limited understanding
  of potential harm or damage from inappropriate
  information disclosure.
• But are highly sensitive to any intrusion by
  parents or other responsible adults.
• Simplistic rule - Do not disclose personal
  information online - is insufficient.
• Addictive access is an excessive amount of time
  spent using the Internet resulting in lack of
  healthy engagement in other areas of life.
• Social networking addiction
• Gaming addiction
• Lack of healthy peer connections.

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Risk takers

• Savvy teens
• effective knowledge, skills, and values to make
  good decisions.
• Naïve teens
• lack sufficient knowledge and skills to engage in
  effective decision-making.
• Vulnerable teens
• lack the necessary knowledge and skills and are
  also are going through a period of teen angst.
• At risk teens
• those who are at risk in other areas of life.

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Online Risk Factors

• The higher the degree of risk, the greater the
  probability the teen will be
• Searching for acceptance and attention from
  people online.
• More vulnerable to manipulation techniques used
  by dangerous individuals and groups.
• Functioning in fight or flight mode and thus
  less likely to make good choices because they are
  not thinking clearly.
• Less attentive to Internet safety messages.
• Less resilient in getting out of a difficult
  situation even if he or she wants to.
• Less able or willing to rely on parents for
  assistance.
• Less likely to report an online dangerous
  situation to an adult because this will likely
  reveal evidence of their own unsafe or
  inappropriate choices.

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Online Risk Factors (contd)

• Which means we must
• Educate adults who are likely in the best
  position to detect and respond to concerns
  involving higher risk youth.
• Develop effective teen bystander strategies to
  encourage teens to provide guidance and
  assistance to peers and report online concerns to
  adults.

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Relation to Bullying

• Continuation of in-school bullying.
• Retaliation for in-school bullying.
• Victimization can lead to threats or distressing
  material.
• DO NOT immediately assume that the student
  posting the harmful online material is the
  originator of the problem.

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Social Status Concerns

• Students most often involved in cyber bullying
  appear to be the in-crowd students.
• Wannabes appear to be the most frequent
  targets.
• These are students who are most actively
  interacting with each other online.
• These are not the typical bullies as identified
  in the research literature.
• Losers and outcasts
• Appear to be less inclined to participate
  actively in the online social dynamics of the
  school community.
• May be targets of indirect cyber bullying through
  denigration.
• May be posting angry condemnations of the
  students and staff who denigrate them at school.
• May form their own online troublesome groups or
  participate in unsafe or dangerous communities.

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Impact

• The harm caused by cyber bullying may be greater
  than traditional bullying because
• Online communications can be extremely vicious.
• There is no escape for those who are being
  cyberbulliedvictimization is ongoing, 24/7.
• Cyber bullying material can be distributed
  worldwide and is often irretrievable.
• Cyber bullies can be anonymous and can solicit
  the involvement of unknown friends.
• Teens are reluctant to tell adults what is
  happening online
• There are reports of cyber bullying leading to
  suicide, school violence, school failure, and
  school avoidance.

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School Discipline Legal Issues

• Is there a legal duty for school administrators
  to protect the safety and security of students
  when they are in school and when they are using
  the Internet through the district system?
• Yes! Schools have an obligation to protect
  students students and/or employees from
  harassing, threatening, or bullying conduct

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School Limits

• Substantial Disruption is a high hurdle for
  schools.
• Whether or not you can impose formal discipline
  may end up being the least important question.
• Stopping the harm is the most important objective
• Schools can always educate and should regulate
  with caution.
• Revise Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to include
  cyber bullying

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Internet Use Policy/Practice (IUP)

• Tied to disciplinary code.
• Clearly communicated to staff and students.
• Foundation for student education.
• Make sure Internet filter is not implemented in a
  way to discriminate!
• Many filters block access to high quality support
  sites for students of various orientations,
  frequently in categories that contain other
  highly inappropriate material.
• Many districts block access to the sexual
  orientation category.
• Provide access to previewed educational research
  resources sites.
• Allow access outside of educational sites for
  specific projects.
• Establish controlled communications environment.
• Specifically provide access to reviewed sites for
  sensitive health and well-being information.

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But we block it
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Concerns

• Significant concerns about the effective
  management of Internet use in schools.
• Internet use policy, detailed and specific
• Filtering software
• Fear-based, simplistic education
• Policies are not generally reador understood.
• Filtering software can easily be bypassed.
  (Google bypass, Internet, filter)
• Younger students need better protection.
• Teens must understand school rules and know how
  to prevent, detect, and respond to problems.

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What can we do?

• What Everyone Needs to Know About Cyber bullying
• Education of Children
• All actions have consequences
• Cyber bullying hurts
• They are just being used and manipulated by cyber
  bully
• Cyber bully and accomplices often become the
  target of cyber bullying themselves
• Care about others and stand up for whats right

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What can we do (cont)

• Comprehensive Plan
• Schools
• Policies concerning misuse of technology
• Evaluate how staff is and can more effectively
  monitor Internet use
• Parents
• Discuss cyber bullying
• Supervise and increase effective monitoring of
  Internet use
• Increase in adult supervision more children
  will hide activities
• strategies needed to change social norms in
  on-line works
• empower the victim with knowledge to prevent
  respond

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Effective Monitoring

• Must shift from blocking approach to effective
  monitoring.
• Monitoring must be sufficient to detect most
  occurrences of misuse.
• Student supervision is essential.
• Routine checking of history file is one strategy.
• Technology-facilitated monitoring strongly
  advised.
• Real-time user monitoring
• Intelligent content analysis (monitor and filter
  via keywords and/or phrases)

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Last thoughts

• A Need For
• Better understanding of what cyber bullying is
• Appropriate computer protocol, specifically cyber
  bullying, via a clearly defined AUP/IUP to allow
  schools to provide intervention in/out of school
  occurrences.
• Clear delineation of school responsibility in
  responding to incidents, especially off school
  grounds
• Clear school policies and action plans increased
  continuity
• Systematic responses, not isolated disciplinary
  reactions
• Decision making and consequences regarding the
  cyber bully and the individual being cyber
  bullied based on
• A decision tree protocol
• Assessment process

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Last thoughts (cont)

• A Need For
• Integration of educational interventions
• Communication among students, counselors,
  teachers, administrators, parents community
• Change needs to come from all levels and grades
• Individual
• Classroom
• School culture
• Victimization often occurs with both the person
  being cyber bullied and the cyber bully
• Important to not throw the baby out with the
  bathwater
• Our children are not disposable!

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Bullying in all forms - including cyber bullying
- is unacceptable, and it is vital to develop
effective strategies both for addressing and
preventing it. Department for Educations and
Skills (UK). (July 25, 2006). Tackling the Cyber
bullies - Jim Knight. Retrieved May 15, 2007,
from News Centre http//www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/Displ
ayPN.cgi?pn_id2006_0111
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If we are to succeed in preventing bullying, we
need to break the climate of silence in which it
thrives by empowering children and young people
to speak out and seek help. BBC news. (July
25, 2006). Government acts on cyber-bullies.
Retrieved May 15, 2007, from BBC News Education
http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5210886.stm
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Cyber Safety Tic Tac KNOWOnline SurvivorYou
Tube Conversationshttp//www.ctap4.org/cybersafe
ty/MacArthur_found_digital_Kids.mov
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Sources

• http//www.ctap4.org/cybersafety/
• http//www.isafe.org
• Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D., Director of the Center
  for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
• BBC news. (July 25, 2006). Government acts on
  cyber-bullies. Retrieved May 15, 2007, from BBC
  News Education http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/educati
  on/5210886.stm
• Department for Educations and Skills (UK). (July
  25, 2006). Tackling the Cyber bullies - Jim
  Knight. Retrieved May 15, 2007, from News Centre
  http//www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id200
  6_0111